RE: Euro Crisis

Euro Crisis For Dummies

Reading Eric Lee’s post has informed me about the severity of the Euro crisis. He noted how a) France and Germany had begun talks of recapitalization, but have not told the specifics or plans and b) Europeans are starting to notice the decline of Euros.

In class, we learned that as uncertainty or risk rises, the cost of money rises. Since Greece’s has been rolling on interest for a while, it’s getting costly for them to continue borrowing money. The bailouts have barely helped and many economists think the Eurozone may already have sunk into recession.

The question now is, how long should countries keep bailing out Greece? The IMF had estimated a cost of at least 100 billion euros to help Europe’s banks; and currently, the European Central Bank is the only institute that can help.

Broken Euro

Perhaps now, besides Eric’s conclusion of waiting for France and Germany’s action, the solution would be to follow Germany — print old currency in preparation to leave the euro. By printing deutsche marks, Germany expects export prices to jump as a result of leaving euro; but German industries seem capable of handling the price increases. They just want to leave the crisis in one piece.

For All You Sugar Addicts

For you sugar addicts (in middle east), you’re in luck. Brand name bakery Sugar Daddy is going to open new brand ‘Hey Sugar’! In the article, the owners address the issue of positioning Hey Sugar to attract more customers.

Hey Sugar

According to Ries and Trout, the ‘Free Ride Trap’ has happened to countless companies as they try to build a sub-brand on top of an existing brand name. They believe it’s impossible for a single brand to hold multiple positions because either the new or the original product will take the other’s market shares. For that reason, the owners chose to differentiate Hey Sugar.

Since this is a new brand, and not the first bakery; the brand’s point of difference is its unique DIY-bakery concept “Mix, Batter, and Bake” as well as an array of new desserts different from the original store. The owners also tried to introduce a name that is simple enough to tell people immediately what the store is about and give people a ‘fun’ perception to the store.

Hey Sugar Cupcakes

Hey Sugar’s value proposition has been clearly set out, and if people like its PoD, they will be positioned as the ‘first’ with that concept and succeed.

 

Advertisements Revolutionized

Recently, I received my album ordered from Korea. The first thing I noticed when I opened the album pamphlet was the QR codes scattered throughout. When I scanned them, they led me to hidden videoclips and extra footages.

This surprise led me to wonder just how far technology had come. In class, we learned that IT has been accounted for as 50% of expenditures around the world and is worth over 3 ½ trillions. QR code, among others, is one of the new, tech-driven marketing tactics.

QR Code

We are all used to advertisement on billboards and social media, but new technology has enabled us to advertise in the wildest way. In the article, companies put a QR code on their roof so that satellite imaging can help advertise their code to users (e.g. Google Earth). When users scan the QR code, they’ll be linked to the company’s websites.

QR Code on Rooftop

In this way, QR codes can be used for sharing insights. They can also collect data about who links to the site (Measurement). From those collected information, they can identify the potential target market by pooling the results of the data (Experimentation).

It makes me wonder: how much farther can technology and telecommunications go?